Havoc (20 page)

“Amy!” Brittany hissed, coming up behind her sister. “You know we're not supposed to do that.”

“Let her,” Nikki commanded. She came to Amy's side, glaring daggers at me. “I am done acting nice to this boyfriend-stealing bitch.”

“Whoa,” Dalton said, looking between his girlfriend and Amy.

“What is happening?” Spencer asked.

“None of this can be real, right?” Tracie murmured. “None of it.”

But it was. And I remembered then all the little, seemingly innocuous things I'd seen Amy do. That day at the hospital I felt someone shove me, only to turn around and see Amy at the other end of the hall, her hand raised. In Dalton's dining room two days ago, a flick of her wrist making the back of my head prickle.

The bitch was telekinetic.

Balling my fists, I tightened my jaw and looked Amy square in the eye. “Oh, it's real all right. Looks like we're not the only ones in town with superpowers. Which means there's no need to hold back.”

I leaped forward, tensing back my arm, my fist aimed at Amy's jaw. She blinked in surprise, not expecting my speed.

And it was Nikki's turn to raise a hand. It felt like someone tackled me in my chest as I fell backward, sliding across the grass, the wind knocked out of me.

“Leave her alone!” someone shouted.

Megan.

I looked up from where I lay on the ground and saw her racing toward the tussle. Some other kids were streaming out the front door, too, hearing the noise of our impromptu smackdown. I could make out Megan's new friend Patrick, hanging back, watching her leap into the fray.

Megan slammed into Nikki, sending her flying sideways, though the girl kept her balance. Megan made to jump her again, her hands arched like claws, her nails ready to scratch Nikki's eyes out.

“Megan, don't!” I shouted. I jumped to my feet and ran to get between her and a raging Nikki.

“What do you mean
don't
?” she said, exasperated. “These bimbos were shoving you, and everyone is just standing around watching! I saw it!”

“You don't know what you saw.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Amy's hand rising, her palm aimed toward Megan. My arm shot out and caught her by the wrist. With a twist of my forearm, I forced her hand down. “Don't you touch her,” I snarled.

Amy smirked once more. “I wasn't planning to.”

“What's going on out here?” another voice shouted from the front door. This time it was Deputy Jared, and more and more kids were spilling onto the lawn, cups and snacks in hand, taking in the show. Some boys were chanting,

“Catfight, catfight, catfight!”

Amy yanked herself free from my grip and stepped back, hands raised in the air. “Nothing, Officer Miller,” she said sweetly. “Just a slight disagreement between girls.”

I glared at her. “Yeah, Jared. I'm fine.”

He came between us and looked at us both. To Nikki, Amy, and Brittany he said, “Why don't you girls go back inside?” Then, to me, “Aren't you taking your friend home?”

“Yeah,” I said, finally tearing my gaze from my new archrivals to meet his blue eyes. “We were before we got distracted.”

“Okay, well, get on it then, Emily,” he whispered to me as the cheerleaders headed back toward the house. “No one here's supposed to know this, but Mr. McKinney hired me to keep an eye on the place as well as play with the band, so I can't have people going nuts.”

“Aye, aye, Officer.”

He smiled and patted me on the shoulder, then went back toward the front door himself. I remembered a week ago how attracted I'd been to him. But with Spencer by my side, he felt more like a big, protective brother. A super-hot big brother, but still.

Megan immediately ran to my side, grabbing my hands, inspecting my face.

“Are you okay?” she asked me. “Those whores didn't hurt you, did they? Where are your glasses? Did they break your glasses?”

“I'm fine,” I said, yanking myself free of her. “I promise you. And I don't want you trying to get revenge or whatever, either.”

“Excuse me for trying to defend my best friend!”

I couldn't deal with this right then. My gut began to boil over with anger. I had
plans
. I had a
mission
. We were supposed to be at BioZenith already, discovering why we were werewolves, looking for any information we could find about the shadowmen. I did not have time for the addition of high-strung, psychically powered cheerleaders. I did not have time for an overly needy best friend who just couldn't get the hint when I needed to be away from her for a little bit.

“Yes, excuse you!” I shouted back. “Look, Reedy, I've got a lot to do tonight. I don't have time for any more high school nonsense. So go back to the party or go home, I don't care, but I can't be here right now. I'll talk to you when I talk to you.”

She gaped at me, her lip quivering. I spun on my heels and marched toward Spencer's mom's minivan, motioning for the rest of my pack to follow me.

“What just happened?” Dalton asked me as he and Spencer guided Tracie into the backseat.

“Your girlfriend has been keeping some really big secrets from you, too,” I said. “Sit next to Tracie.”

“Yes, ma'am!”

I got into the passenger seat and Spencer started up the car, not saying anything but constantly looking in the rearview mirror to make sure the newest member of our pack was through the worst of her mental breakdown.

He pulled us out into the street, driving us at last to BioZenith. As we passed Dalton's house, I looked out the window.

Megan still stood there in the yard, alone. Watching as I drove off, leaving her behind.

17

BREAKING AND ENTERING IS A CRIME

It was almost nine p.m. when we finally pulled onto the dark, empty street in the industrial district where BioZenith was based. As usual at this time of night, the buildings and parking lots were empty, save for a few cars here and there. Night janitors or someone working extra late in their office, probably.

But there wasn't a single car beyond the fence surrounding BioZenith.

We drove down the street once, just to scope out the place. Seeing it as dark and empty as the night before, I had Spencer park in the lot of a building a little ways down the block. He shut off the engine, and we all leaned toward each other, except Tracie.

“Man, this is so awesome,” Dalton was saying. “I can't wait to bust some heads.”

“Keep yourself in check, Dalton, understand?” I said. “I am so not in the mood for you getting all out of control again.”

“Again?” Spencer asked. “What are you talking about?”

“It's nothing, man,” Dalton said. “I'm cool.”

“If you say so.” Spencer turned to me. “What's the plan?”

He was too close. His pheromones were coming after me again, invading my synapses. I recoiled—that sort of thing was reserved for Daytime. I wanted my head clear.

Spencer narrowed his eyes at me. “What is it?”

“We're going in the way Dalton and I did yesterday,” I said, ignoring his question. “We tore open a hole in the fence behind one of the buildings. If it's been sealed up, we'll make a new one.”

“Breaking and entering is a crime,” Tracie said absently. She was slouched in her seat, her clothes ruffled, her headband still askew. She stared out the window at the empty parking lot. “Probably a felony of some sort.” Her brow furrowed. “Right? Perhaps the rules are different here in my head.”

“Well, if all this is in your head, Tracie, you can't get in trouble, right?”

She sat up straight at that, glaring at me. “Are you mocking me? You expect me to run to you and beg for your help with my insanity, and you make fun of me?”

“Of course not, Tracie,” Spencer said, reaching back and grabbing her hand. “Don't mind Emily. Or Dalton, for that matter. None of us can really control how we act at night any more than you can.”

Dalton unhooked his seat belt and opened his door. “Come on, let's go already,” he said, jumping out to the pavement.

“You need to come with us, Tracie,” I said. “Someone could spot you in the car.”

“And inside is where we'll find what's making us all sick,” Spencer added. “Okay?”

Tracie nodded slowly, considering. But I knew she'd accept Spencer's words. As far as I knew, he hadn't spoken to Tracie much before today, and yet he seemed to know the exact way to break past her defenses, hack into her code, and get her to do what we needed her to do.

That could come in handy.

Finally, Tracie sighed. “Fine, I'll go in. But I am in no way dressed for this. I don't think, anyway. Dresses aren't preferable for espionage, right?”

“Not unless you're at some upscale ball and need to seduce a trade prince,” I said.

Something thudded against the side of the car. I turned to see Dalton, who had apparently just punched Spencer's mom's minivan.

“Let's go already,” he said again.

Dalton and I leading, the four of us ran behind the fence surrounding BioZenith. The hole in the fence was actually still there, surprisingly. Considering all the checkpoints and the armed guards, apparently the place had never had to deal with actual intruders before.

Lucky for us.

We went through the fence one by one, then leaped to the ladder to climb atop the roof. Tracie needed some goading, insisting someone might look up and see her unmentionables, but we finally got her to join us.

This time, there were no guards. Dalton smashed the palm reader and the door opened easily, revealing a stairwell.

Much like in Dalton's dad's office, there were dim fluorescents lighting up the stairwell. I took the lead, Dalton behind me, Tracie behind him, and Spencer in the rear. He let the steel door click as quietly as possible. I turned to them, a finger to my lips, and crept down the steps.

I reached a door that read
BUILDING A, LEVEL
2. Much like the door above, this had another panel to read fingerprints.

“I'll smash it too,” Dalton said, trying to shove past me.

“No,” I commanded. “The one on the roof was noisy enough. Let me try something.”

I grabbed the handle. It was cool to the touch. Wiggling it just to be sure, I confirmed it was, of course, locked. Gripping the handle tightly, I shoved down as hard as I could.

The lock broke, and the door swung inward with a loud squeak that echoed through the stairwell.

We all froze, tense, listening. My pulse was pounding deliciously fast. I loved it, the thrill of it all, of actually getting in here. Daytime Emily certainly hadn't approved of my—our—original attempts at getting the adrenaline rushing, but this? Yeah, this was something we could both get behind.

There were no footsteps, no alarms. I wondered if perhaps BioZenith could afford only the two guards we'd taken down the night before, one of whom was probably so not up for work that night. Strange, for a place that seemed so determined to give off the vibe of a prison. But I wasn't going to question it.

I led our little group into the hallway outside the door. We found ourselves in a maze of cubicles separated by glass partitions. Each one had a desk much like the one back in Mr. McKinney's office, and all came equipped with computers and flat-screen monitors. The monitors showed a blue haze that filled the room. Beyond the cubicles were hallways leading to back offices and meeting rooms and bathrooms.

I looked around, taking it all in. Each monitor had its own screen saver, and many of the desks were stocked with personal photos, stuffed animals, potted plants, even little candy machines and the occasional action figure or two. It was a strange bit of total humanness that I didn't really expect from the place that had turned me into a monster and had sent a man to murder us.

Quietly, we each went to a computer and began to click through the files and folders. All except for Tracie, who clung to Spencer as if he was the only thing anchoring her to the world. She sat at the edge of a chair in the cubicle he worked at, hands over her eyes, completely still.

I clicked at a couple of computers myself, but there was nothing here. Whatever this part of the building was, it must have been administrative or something equally boring. Guess even mad scientists need an HR department.

“Ugh, screw this,” Dalton said. He shoved back from the desk he'd been typing at, the chair slamming into the wall of the cubicle. Some framed photos fell over, but he didn't bother to put them back in place.

“Agreed,” Spencer said. “More useless junk. This is a waste of our time.”

My eye caught a framed piece of paper on the wall next to the door we'd come in. I got up from my chair and went to it. It turned out to be a map of the facility, showing fire exits and escape routes.

I grabbed the frame and tore it from the wall. It came free in a cloud of white dust, a piece of plaster ripped off with it. I found where we were, then looked over the rest of the map. It seemed that beneath us would be the main lobby of the building, which was probably similarly useless. Back behind the cubicles were some fancier offices, which could be handy but which could also be just as dull. Tracing with my finger, I found an exit here on the second floor that went across the glass walkway I'd seen outside and into Building B. There, on the top level, were a bunch of rooms labeled “laboratories.”

The first floor of Building B apparently and strangely had no exits. It also had no rooms, at least none that were marked. That seemed highly suspicious. My curiosity was officially piqued.

By this time, Dalton, Spencer, and Tracie were all heading back toward me. I dropped the map to the carpet at my feet, not wanting to carry it around anymore, then looked to them.

“Okay, new plan: no more messing around with desktop PCs. Come on.”

We ran through the center of the floor, between the cubicles, toward the glass-paneled door that led to the walkway. There was another fingerprint pad, another handle I easily broke with my hand. This time, the glass on the door cracked from the force of the blow.